Harry Reid: CIA charges vs. Senate ‘absurd’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid disclosed Thursday that he has ordered the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms to conduct an investigation into how Senate staffers obtained copies of internal CIA records that officials at the spy agency had not authorized for release to Congress.

The investigation has the potential to help defuse tensions between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee, but it’s unclear whether the agency will cooperate with an inquiry that would be controlled by the Senate.

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In two letters revealing the probe, Reid repeatedly described as “absurd” allegations that Senate staff hacked into classified CIA networks to obtain reports that are part of an internal review of the agency’s Bush-era interrogation practices.

“You have alleged that Senate committee staff illicitly accessed classified CIA networks to obtain a document,” Reid said in a letter to CIA Director John Brennan dated Wednesday. “To my knowledge, the CIA has produced no evidence to support its claims that Senate committee staff who have no technical training somehow hacked into the CIA’s highly secure classified networks, an allegation that appears on its face to be patently absurd.”

At least in public, Brennan has not explicitly accused the Senate staffers of hacking into the CIA system. However, in a letter published last week, the CIA director said he was concerned that the files “may have been improperly obtained and/or retained” by the intelligence committee’s staff. He also suggested that the staffers might have succeeded in “finding and exploiting a vulnerability.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has said the files were located using the same search tool the CIA provided for the Senate staffers’ work examining interrogation-related documents.

The Justice Department is already considering whether the law might have been broken in the Senate staffers acquisition of the files or the CIA’s examination of computers used by those staffers. Reid also sent a separate letter describing the Senate inquiry to Holder, who said Wednesday that no decision had been made about whether to open a formal investigation into either question.

The Democratic leader also announced Thursday that current Sergeant-at-Arms Terry Gainer will step down this spring and be replaced by current deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Drew Willison.

Reid said in the letter to Brennan that Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has raised “grave and unprecedented concerns” about separation of constitutional powers by accusing the CIA of removing the panel’s access to that review, which is believed to contradict the CIA’s official position on its Bush-era interrogation programs and secret prisons.

In the letter to Holder, Reid said the CIA’s alleged action of cutting off committee access during an investigation constitutes a much more “serious breach” than acquisition of the internal CIA review by Senate staffers. Reid called the CIA’s referral of those charges to the Justice Department a “transparent attempt to intimidate” the Intelligence Committee from its deep dive into the agency’s policies.

“The allegation that Senate Committee staff who have no technical training somehow hacked into the CIA’s highly secure classified networks is so absurd as to be comical,” Reid said. “The absurdity of the allegations, when matched with the clear conflict of interest possessed by the Acting General Counsel, calls into question the credibility of CIA Director Brennan’s recent claim that ‘there’s never been an effort by the CIA to thwart [the committee’s] investigation’” into interrogation practices.

But the majority leader strongly warned Holder that the dispute between the two branches of government could have historic implications for constitutional balance of power. Reid said if the CIA’s actions are not challenged, then the country risks a future of an “unaccountable Intelligence Community run amok.”

A CIA spokesman issued a statement Thursday pledging to try to settle the fight with the Senate, but which stopped short of committing to give the Senate sergeant-at-arms access to the computer systems used by the Senate aides at a CIA-run facility in Northern Virginia which was set up to facilitate the committee’s document review.

“CIA Director Brennan is committed to resolving all outstanding issues related to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation report and to strengthening relations between the Agency and Congress,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said. “The CIA believes in the necessity of effective, strong and bipartisan congressional oversight. We are a far better organization because of congressional oversight, and we will do whatever we can to be responsive to the elected representatives of the American people.”

Reid indicated in the letter that he has spoken with Brennan several times about the spat between the Senate and the CIA, but a Reid aide said the CIA director had not responded to Reid’s letter as of Thursday morning.

In a January letter, Brennan proposed a joint CIA-Senate inquiry or “an independent review” into what happened. Reid’s letter made no mention of a joint investigation.

White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler has also been involved in trying to resolve the dispute. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to comment Thursday on Reid’s letter.

“The disputes around the protocols established in 2009 for the provision of documents to the committee are being reviewed by an independent inspector general as well as the Department of Justice. So I think that’s appropriate, and I’m not going to comment on what are ongoing reviews,” Carney told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama on a trip to Florida.

However, a senior administration official suggested Reid’s proposal was in line with Brennan’s prior proposals to resolve the issue.

“The CIA has always supported an investigation into this matter, on terms which would be mutually agreeable to the legislative and executive branches,” said the official, who asked not to be named.